The Costs of Buying a Home in Essex

First Time Buyer Mortgage Advice in Essex

When it comes to buying a home, there are that many different costs that you need to consider. Whether you are completely new to this or have been through the moving home process before you will know that buying a home can be very stressful. It can get even more stressful and expensive when you are buying and selling at the same time.

As a Mortgage Broker in Essex, especially amongst first time buyers in Essex, we always get asked the question of “how much does it cost to buy a home”. In response, we decided to make a video to give applicants an easy way of understanding all of the costs that they have to consider:

How much does it all cost?

Property survey fees

When you are thinking of buying a home, your lender will want to know whether the property is worth what you are paying for it. To do this, they will perform a property survey on the property that you are interested in. If you are lucky, your lender may provide this service for free, although, if this is the case, they may not show you the report.

If you don’t get offered a free property survey, you will have to pay for one; usually, you will have to pay a few hundred pounds for one. Of course, this depends on the property survey that you go for as they range in price. There are lots of different ones to choose from, your price will double each time you go higher up the property survey scale.

If you want to find out what each survey consists of, you should approach a Mortgage Advisor in Essex. They will advise you on what property survey to take and tell you the exact differences between each one.

If the property that you’re looking at buying is old or has been on the market for a long time, you may want to go for a higher property valuation. An older property has a higher chance of having something wrong with it and there could be a reason why a property has been on the market for a long time. It’s better to find out if there is anything wrong with the property before committing to it. Upgrading your property survey would be costly at the time, but thinking long term, it may be a fraction of what it would cost you for repairs over the years.

Mortgage arrangement fees

By rule of thumb, the mortgages with the lowest interest rates come with the highest arrangement fees. It may sound unfair that you have to pay for your mortgage to be set up, but it’s a long process that can sometimes cost you up to £1000. If you go down the Mortgage Broker route, your Mortgage Advisor in Essex will recommend you with the cheapest and best-suited way to go about it whilst also considering your personal and financial situation.

If your total purchase price is high, you want to make sure that your interest rate is low. However, you may want to borrow a smaller amount of money, if you are, then you should know it’s usually cheaper to take out a mortgage without fees as a rule.

Lender arrangement fees can often be added to your mortgage. If you elect to add a fee, then interest will be charged on the fee and this can really add up over the term of the mortgage.

Solicitor fees

You will need a solicitor to carry out all of the legal aspects of your purchase. Here are the things that your solicitor in Essex will check:

• Does the seller actually own the property that they’re selling?
• Who is responsible for maintaining adjoining fences, walls, etc?
• Has anyone got any lodged plans in the area (e.g. future transport links)?

These are all things that may affect your ability to sell your house in the future.

Solicitor fees can usually be quite expensive, you will need to check whether their quoted price includes VAT and local searches.

Stamp Duty

Normally, all purchases require you to pay an extra amount to the government, this is known as stamp duty. This amount does vary from time to time so it may be worth checking the government’s stamp duty website to check what you may have to pay:

Full details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax

If stamp duty is due you will normally pay this upon completion to your solicitor who will make the payment to the government on your behalf.

Estate agency fees

You must know that the only case where you’ll be dealing with an estate agent would be if you were looking to sell a property. Estate agency fees can vary. As a Mortgage Broker in Essex, we would recommend that you look around and do your research before picking the first estate agent that you see. If you’re looking for a quick online service, finding an online-only estate agent could benefit you. They also tend to be cheaper as their service is all online.

If you want a more personalised experience with your estate agent, you will probably end up paying an extra 1-2% of your selling price. Estate agency fees are usually negotiable, if you go with a Mortgage Broker in Essex, they will sort all of this out for you, trying to cut prices wherever they can.

Mortgage broker fees

Most mortgage brokers will charge you for their service. The amount that they charge you is usually based on a percentage of what the lender pays the broker for the work they do on their behalf. Things such as property prices, etc all come into play too.

You should only be charged if you choose to continue with them once they have found you a deal. Most will allow you to part without paying after the consultation process.

Removal fees

People always try to find a cheaper alternative with anything, however, sometimes it may just be easier and safer to hire a professional to get the job done. People think that hiring their own van and moving their furniture by themselves is the better option, when in fact this can be a hassle and it could be made so much simpler by using a removal company. They are experts at manoeuvring furniture remember.

Moving Home Mortgage Advice in Essex

Date Last Edited: December 6, 2023